Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery”

In addition to numerous reprints in magazines, anthologies and textbooks, "The Lottery" has been adapted for radio, live television, a 1953 ballet, films in 1969 and 1997, a TV movie, an opera, and a one-act play by Thomas Martin.

1969 Film

Larry Yust's short film, The Lottery (1969), produced as part of Encyclopædia Britannica's 'Short Story Showcase' series, was ranked by the Academic Film Archive "as one of the two bestselling educational films ever." It has an accompanying ten-minute commentary film, Discussion of "The Lottery" by University of Southern California English professor Dr. James Durbin. Featuring the film debut of Ed Begley, Jr., Yust's adaptation has an atmosphere of naturalism and small town authenticity with its shots of pick-up trucks and townspeople in Fellows, California. 

1995 TV Film

Anthony Spinner's feature-length TV film, The Lottery, which premiered September 29, 1996, on NBC, is a sequel loosely based on the original Shirley Jackson story. Some names have been changed, but many of the older characters and names are the same as in Jackson's short story. In Spinner's account, the annual lottery is held for religious reasons. Davey Hutchinson, now known as Jason Smith, has moved to Boston, but keeps having flashbacks to and nightmares about the death of his mother. His father (Bill Hutchinson, known as Albert Smith here) is now dying in a mental hospital, and asks his son to pour his ashes on his mother's grave in the town. Davey/Jason goes to the town, but is lied to by the townspeople and told that neither he nor his mother is from the town. He eventually learns, to his devastation, that he is not only from the town, but participated in the stoning death of his mother when he was six years old. The thriller storyline also has a love story with the crazed townsfolk and the sadistic lottery as the backdrop.

The townsfolk will do anything to keep their crazed tradition going, but Smith challenges the town by leaving and going back to the town with investigators. However, because the town has "plants" in the outside world, he does not manage to completely uncover the sick town traditions. He winds up in a mental hospital being watched over by the same doctor his father had.

Director Daniel Sackheim filmed in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with a cast that included Keri Russell, Dan Cortese, Veronica Cartwright, Sean Murray, Jeff Corey, Salome Jens, and M. Emmet Walsh. It was nominated for a 1997 Saturn Award for Best Single Genre Television Presentation.